1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a class of ratchet clamp or lever clamp in general, and particularly to single hand operated ratchet clamp. A finger ring lever is attached to the free end of the lever element of the ratchet clamp for inserting one of operator's fingers so that the ratchet clamp can be operated to clamp workpiece(s) with one hand.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical ratchet clamp comprises a slide rail, a fixed arm, a sliding arm which is free to slide over the slide rail, a lever element which is mounted in a pivotable manner on the sliding arm and a pressure plate which is mounted on the sliding arm and can be displaced transversely to the sliding arm pushing the workpiece against the fixed arm by the turning of the lever element. However, this clamping action on a workpiece usually requires two hands of an operator, with one hand holding the slide rail and the other hand operating the lever element due to the distance between the slide rail and the free end of the lever element. In this case, one may need a helping hand from other person to hold the workpiece(s) so that the clamping job can be completed. The present invention is devised to solve this problem.